Municipal awareness campaign with refugees and Muslim minorities

15 November, 2017

The Seville City Council is preparing to launch an awareness campaign with asylum seekers, refugees, stateless people, vulnerable migrants and Muslim minorities in the face of increased “hatred” towards these groups after attacks by the terrorist organization Daesh.

With this measure the City Council responds to the request of IU last August when they observed in Seville cases of Islamophobia.

For this, according to the design document of this action, the image and message of the campaign is being designed to sensitize and raise awareness among citizens about the situation and the “need to effectively and fully protect” human rights and fundamental freedoms of all migrants.
Likewise, it is committed to raise awareness and raise awareness among citizens about the legal situation of migrants, especially affected by the renewal procedures, family reunification and rooting, asylum and refugee applications, as well as the situation of Muslim minorities.

In this context, it is explained that the succession of attacks in Europe and “the rapidity with which messages of hate circulate in the networks threaten to break the peaceful coexistence between communities.” “Avoiding an spiral of intolerance requires that all institutions and civil society be immediately put to work for their prevention,” adds the Consistory.

In fact, it points to the Europol report in which it is warned that crimes related to religious or racial reasons increased by 41 percent between 2016 and 2017, while the Coexistence in Spain platform, which brings together organizations and collective of civil society, denounces “the reactions of Islamophobia” emerged after the attacks in Catalonia, calling for “the intervention of the authorities before speeches and hate crimes.”

Seville City Council notes that the Andalusian capital “aims to be a diverse, intercultural and polyhedral city, where all people have real access, effective and in conditions of equality to all human rights recognized and guaranteed in the city.” For this reason, it aims to combat hate speech and discrimination, promote the exercise of full citizenship, defend civil rights and the use of public space, elements that will also be present in the campaign.

“Throughout the history of humanity, migration has been a courageous expression of the individual determination to overcome adversity and seek a better life,” he stresses, after recalling the proclamation of December 18th as the International Day of the Migrant by the General Assembly of the United Nations, which reaffirms the importance of the international protection of these persons and underlines the obligation of the States to improve it.